Mentoring

Why It Matters
Mentoring programs improve the stability and quality of the nation’s teaching force. A growing body of research demonstrates that comprehensive induction, of which mentoring is an important part, can cut attrition rates by 50 percent. Investments in mentoring not only help states and districts avoid the high costs of recruiting, hiring, and training new teachers, but also increase teacher quality and student achievement, as teachers learn from one another and remain in the profession

What We’re Doing
At the request of the Virginia Department of Education, CTQ is designing a comprehensive evaluation system for Virginia’s beginning teacher mentoring program to better understand and inform decision-making about providing high-quality, effective support to beginning teachers. To increase the quality of classroom instruction, the retention of teachers, and, ultimately, student achievement, this evaluation system will be designed to link with existing statewide databases and will address the following issues related to new teacher mentoring:

• What are the key elements of the beginning teacher mentor programs in Virginia public school divisions and how well are they implemented?
• What is the impact of the mentoring program on the beginning teacher teaching practice?
• How does the mentoring program affect teacher retention?
• How do students perform in the classes of the beginning teachers?

CTQ has developed surveys to administer to beginning teachers, mentors, and principals and mentoring program coordinators. In collaboration with James Madison University and the Virginia Department of Education, an on-line survey of program coordinators in all public school divisions was disseminated to gather information about the 2004-05 beginning teacher mentoring programs and rates of teacher retention. Findings from this survey and recommendations for implementing a full-scale, on-going evaluation system will be the end-product of this work.